January 26, 2018
CapitalPress.com
After 30 years, Expo director sets retirement
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
SPOKANE — Myrna O’Leary, the
longtime director of the Spokane Ag
Expo and Pacific Northwest Farm Fo-
rum, will retire in March, ending a 30-
year run.
She reflected on her pending retire-
ment on a recent morning, after send-
ing out exhibitor manuals and judging
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
the annual photo contest for the last
Myrna O’Leary, longtime director of the
time.
“It’s that four-letter word, ‘last,’ Spokane Ag Expo and Pacific Northwest
Farm Forum, plans to retire March 30.
that’s kind of like a knife,” she said.
O’Leary joined the Expo in August
1988 and plans to retire March 30.
does that.”
“It’s just time,” she said. She plans
It takes work to keep the show run-
to take some time off, perhaps to travel ning smoothly.
or spend time in her yard, and spend
“Being the oldest of nine kids, or-
ganization comes to me kind of natu-
more time with family.
When she first joined the show, rally,” she said. “I just know that what
someone told her he didn’t expect it to needs to be done, needs to be done. I’m
last another five years.
very detail-oriented, probably some-
“Not on my watch,” O’Leary times to a fault.”
thought. “I think the show is import-
About 100 volunteers help with the
ant to this region, because agricul- Expo, including members of Greater
ture’s important to this region. ... I just Spokane Incorporated’s AgriBusiness
thought it was important to keep that Council, GSI staff and Visit Spokane.
in the limelight, and I think the show O’Leary has been known to “volun-
teer” her family members as well, she
said with a chuckle.
The challenge each year is to bring
something new to the show, she said.
“We try every year to bring what’s
cutting edge or what is the top focus for
the farmers, to bring them more infor-
mation,” she said. “Every year, there’s
new, whiz-bang things.”
Many of the new things introduced
at the show, such as unmanned aerial
vehicles or social media, go on to be-
come part of everyday farm life.
O’Leary said she depends on mem-
bers of the Expo and Farm Forum
board and committees, many of whom
are active in agriculture, to determine
what will draw a crowd.
“It’s a team effort,” she said.
“Myrna has a gift for working with
both the volunteers and exhibitors to
make them feel special,” said Diahne
Gill, program manager for the Farm
Forum, who has worked alongside
O’Leary more than 20 years. “She goes
far above and beyond to accommodate
exhibitor needs.”
Gill said O’Leary has meant a lot to
all the people she’s worked with and
will be missed.
PRODUCTS &
SOLUTIONS
for
AGRICULTURAL
SAFETY
3
Market expert looks at
future of wheat prices
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Record world crop produc-
tion in the last five years has
masked the fact that demand
is high as well, a market ana-
lyst says.
“I’m of the opinion we
don’t need significant crop
disasters to bring prices back
to a better, higher level,” said
Mike Krueger, founder of the
marketing advisory firm the
Money Farm in Fargo, N.D.
“If we even took production,
yields per acre worldwide
back down to more nor-
mal levels, I think we’d see
markets get interesting very
quickly. That just hasn’t hap-
pened yet.”
Krueger
will
speak
Wednesday during the Spo-
kane Ag Expo and Pacific
Northwest Farm Forum.
Krueger expects total
wheat acres in
the U.S. and
Canada to de-
cline again in
2018.
Crop issues
arose in Ar-
Mike
gentina, Aus-
Krueger
tralia, the U.S.
and Canada,
but Russia produced another
record crop, pressing wheat
prices lower, Krueger said.
Krueger believes export
demand for U.S. wheat needs
to pick up, reflecting smaller
crops in competing countries.
Soybean and corn planting
in Brazil and Argentina could
experience weather problems.
If that happens during the win-
ter, prices could increase for
those crops, Krueger said.
“Even though there’s a
lot of wheat on earth, there’s
not a lot of good-quality hard
wheats,” he said.
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